2013 LAW REVIEW/JOURNAL PETITIONING
CASE COMMENT INSTRUCTIONS
ABA JOURNAL OF LABOR & EMPLOYMENT LAW
JOURNAL OF LAW AND INEQUALITY
JOURNAL OF LAW, SCIENCE & TECHNOLOGY
JOURNAL OF INTERNATIONAL LAW
MINNESOTA LAW REVIEW
I.
GENERAL
A. Case Comments. The main part of your petition (in addition to the Bluebook
exercise the personal statement, if any) will be comprised of a Case Comment. A
Case Comment centers on analyzing the holding of a particular case (the “main
case”) in the context of a variety of other sources, including other cases, journal
and law review articles, scholarly books, and other forms of commentary and
analysis such as internet blog posts.
B. There is no “right” answer. We grade the Case Comment portion of your
petition based on how well you make an argument, use the sources, and properly
structure and bluebook your Comment. We do not grade based on what argument
you make or whether we agree with it.
C. Only use the material in the packet. The petition packet contains all of the
research material you may use to write the Case Comment. Additional research
is prohibited; if it is discovered that you have done additional research, your
petition will be immediately disqualified. The cases and articles may have been
edited to reduce the size of the packet or remove extraneous material; do not
worry if a case or article is incomplete. You may not look up any outside
sources or the full text of any material that is in the packet. While writing the
petition, you may not consult any legal source outside of the petition packet
(whether in electronic or paper form), even if the source is not related to the
subject of the petition.
You also may not refer to any external sources for endnote and citation
purposes. The only outside references you may consult are the Bluebook,
dictionaries (legal or otherwise), a thesaurus, and a grammar/writing manual; you
may not, however, cite to any of these sources in your Comment.
D. Do not talk to other people about your petition. Petitions must represent your
own work. You may not discuss the petition or any aspect of the petitioning
process with other people nor may you have anyone else proofread or
comment on your work. “Discuss” includes electronic communication such as
blog postings, social networking sites, instant messaging, text messaging, etc. It
does not matter if one or both of you may have already completed your petition or
viii
decided not to petition at all—do not discuss the petition. Violation of these
instructions may constitute an Honor Code violation. Exception: You may look at
the petition samples on reserve in the Law Library as well as those provided
during the “Petition 101” sessions for ideas about formatting or style, but
remember that these are on different topics. They also might contain errors or
outdated material. Treat them as a resource, but not authoritative.
II.
FORMATTING
A. Fonts, Paper, and Print Quality
1. Petitions should be printed in Times New Roman (12 point) or the substantial
equivalent (e.g. Times 12).
2. Print your petition on regular weight white paper. We will be making copies
of your petition, and heavier weight paper is not easy to copy.
3. The petition must be of sufficient print quality. Printouts from the Law School
printers or a similar printer are sufficient, providing that the print is dark
enough to show up on copies of the petition.
B. Header and Footer. The header on every page should contain your petition
number in the upper, right-hand corner. The header should contain no other
information. The footer on every page should include a page number in the
middle of the page. The footer should contain no information other than the page
number.
C. Text and Endnotes. Your petition should be roughly evenly split between text
and endnotes. Do not use footnotes. Both text and endnotes sections should be
double-spaced. The text section should be no more than 10 pages in length. The
endnotes section should be no more than 10 pages in length. If either section
exceeds 10 pages in length, your petition may be disqualified.
D. Citations. Citations should be in endnotes only. All citations should conform to
the rules in the Bluebook, 19th Edition. You should use the “white pages” section
of the Bluebook, not the “blue pages” section that you may have used in your
Legal Writing course. Do not use parallel citations unless the Bluebook calls for
them.
Sometimes you may wish to show that a source you are citing is citing
another source that is only available in its short form. For instance, a case
may cite to another case in its short form, but how that cited case initially
appears in long form has been redacted out of the material. Do not go
ix
outside the universe of the source packet to look up how to cite these
sources in full—use the short form citation. Those grading the case
comments will also be looking at the petition packet only. Any attempt to
go outside of the petition packet, even to look up the full cite for certain
sources, may be grounds for disqualification.
E. Cite Original Page Numbers Only. All sources have been specially edited for
the petition packet. Information concerning reporter/journal name and initial page
number appears at the top of the first page for each source. When the source is
paginated, subsequent page numbers are indicated by an asterisk (Ex. *545).
These numbers correspond to those in the reporters/journals. Do not cite to the
petition packet page numbers written in the bottom center of each page in
the packet. Brackets indicate additions or omissions by petition editors.
Example:
*500 Marty McFly awoke in a pool of sweat to Huey Lewis blaring over his clock
radio. He quickly ran out of his house and got on his skateboard to meet Doc at
the mall. It was in the middle of the night.
…[*514]…
When he awoke for the second time, *515 Marty opened the door of his house
and saw, to his astonishment, Biff waxing the family car.
If you wanted to cite Marty skateboarding to the mall in the middle of the night,
that would be on page 500. If you wanted to cite Marty seeing Biff, that would be
on page 515. Don’t be alarmed that 14 pages are missing from the selection;
again, the cases and articles in the packet have been edited.
Note that the page number 514 has been added to let you know what was omitted.
This may not always be added for you. If no page number is added, you could still
deduce that Marty awaking for the second time was found on page 514, by the
fact that this information comes directly before page 515.
F. Cross-References. You may use supra cross-references in endnotes to refer to a
source that you have cited previously in accordance with Bluebook rules. You
may not use internal cross-references either in text or endnotes to refer forward
(infra) or back (supra) to your own text.
III.
ANALYTICAL PROCESS
A. Read the Main Case Thoroughly. No matter what analytical approach you take
and no matter what argument you make, the main case should be at the center of
your Comment. Make sure you understand all the arguments and reasoning
contained in the redacted version in your packet, including any concurrences and
dissents.
x
B. Read the Entire Packet. Make sure you understand the relevance and
perspective of each source included. Think about what relationship it may have to
the main case, what perspective and arguments each author contributes, and how
you might use it in constructing your argument. You may conclude that a
particular source is not relevant or useful. That’s fine. But make sure you have a
reason for which sources you choose to use or not use.
C. Synthesize. Identify all of the relevant legal and policy issues raised or affected
by the main case.
D. Choose a theme. Identify the main argument you want to make. You can choose
any analytical approach that appeals to you, including a discussion of the impact
of the case on the law, what the Supreme Court (or other courts) should do in
response to the legal situation created by the main case, what policy actions
should be taken to address the issues raised by the main case, a critical theoretical
discussion of the assumptions underlying the main case, or any other approach
that you feel you can support with the materials provided and with your own
analysis. Remember, there is no “right answer” and this means there is also no
single “correct” analytical framework. Your petition should reflect what you have
to say about the main case.
E. Organize and Outline. Using the materials in the packet (and only those
materials), organize and outline the argument you will make in your Comment
and how you will support that argument.
F. General Advice.
1.
2.
3.
4.
5.
6.
Avoid passive voice.
Try to stick to one idea per paragraph.
Keep your sentences crisp. Avoid long, complex sentences.
Speak in plain language. Avoid “legalese.”
Write in the third person.
Use “pincites” where appropriate to direct the reader to specific material
within a source that supports your point.
7. Check the Bluebook for how to format each and every citation you make.
8. Look at old petitions for insights into formatting and structure.
IV.
WRITING THE COMMENT.
A. Title. The title should identify broadly your thesis about the main case that you
will discuss in your Comment. It should include the case name. The title should
be at the top of your Comment, in all caps, and centered.
B. Introduction
xi
1. First paragraph: A brief statement of the facts, the procedural posture, and
the holding of the main case, in that order. Use endnotes to elaborate. Do not
detail the holding yet. Save this for the case description.
2. Second paragraph: A description of the important issues raised in the main
case and the reason why the case and those issues are important.
3. Third paragraph: An outline of your Comment. First, state the goal of your
Comment; second, tell the reader what you will do in each section of your
Comment; and third, conclude with your thesis.
Use the device “this Comment” in the third paragraph and whenever you wish to
address the reader to map out what you plan to do. After the third paragraph,
however, you should keep such intrusions to a minimum.
C. Part I: Background Section. The background section introduces the cases and
principles that place the main case and your analysis in perspective.
1. Economy of Information. Your goal is only to introduce the information
necessary for the reader to understand the main case and the basis for your
argument about it. Do not actually discuss the details of the main case unless
they are directly relevant to your analysis. Use broad statements of the law in
the text, then support the with citations and parenthetical summaries of key
cases and arguments in endnotes.
2. Introductions. Your other goal here is to introduce other cases and important
journal articles that you will use. Do not discuss them in detail, but make the
reader aware of where they fit in the overall framework of law and policy
addressed by your Comment.
3. Relevance. Everything in the background section should relate directly to the
analysis you will give in Section E, below.
D. Part II: Case Description Section. The case description follows the background
section. This section should describe the holding and reasoning of the main case
in detail.
1. First paragraph: Link the main case into the overall state of the law as you
described it in your background section.
2. Next: Describe each holding in the main case and summarize the reasoning of
the court. Support your statements with citations in endnotes.
Resist the urge to analyze or critique the court’s holdings and arguments. You will
do that in the next section.
E. Part III: Analysis Section. Analyze and critique the main case in detail. Use any
intellectual framework or analytical bent you choose, provided that you feel you
can use the materials in the packet to adequately support it. Remember:
xii
1. There is no “right answer” or “wrong answer.” Your Comment will be
scored on how well you structure and support your argument. Your Comment
will not be scored on the substance of your argument.
2. Avoid introducing new material. Most of what you use should have been
introduced, albeit briefly, in the background section. You may refer to
material you discussed previously in the text (e.g. “As discussed in Part I . .
.”), but you should avoid using internal cross-references in endnotes (e.g. “See
supra, note X and accompanying text.”).
3. Support your arguments. Precedent does not bind you as it does a court, but
when you are critiquing any court’s holding, you should support your
argument with appropriate reasoning and, where possible, citations in
endnotes. Avoid making merely conclusory statements. Analyze; don’t just
assert.
4. Consider counterarguments. Likewise, make sure to explicitly discuss
arguments that disagree with your arguments and explain why your arguments
are better. Again, support these points with citations in endnotes.
5. Avoid repetition. Your space is very limited. Make each point, support it
with analysis in text and citations in endnotes. Then move on.
F. Conclusion. The conclusion is a very brief two-part summary of your comment.
The first part should outline the problem posed in the main case. The second part
should state and defend your analysis. After the reader skims your introduction
and your conclusion, she or he should be able to understand the issues raised in
the main case, the court’s holding, and your analysis.
xiii